Chapter 22: Entangled Fates

Merrick had been shoved away from Aries and Prince Sunrei with an intense kick from the man who had put a dagger on his shoulder. He rolled once more on the ground.

Without Merrick blocking the view, Aries finally got a glimpse of the man who had helped them.

He was wearing a silver overcoat with fish scale linings on it. His silver hair was in a tight bun. The handle of his dual daggers was two fish swimming in opposite directions. His vibrant silver eyes and wide grin were mocking Aries.

"Merrick wants to kill you?" he raised an eyebrow at Aries. "Is he possessed?"

"Later, Pines," Leon told the silver-haired house leader. "We need to take Merrick back to the house of Taurus. We also need to repair the statue."

"If Tauren could not stop Merrick from disrupting our mission…" Aries got up on his knees and glared at Merrick. "Then I will kill him."

Aries crossed his dual blades as he charged towards Merrick. His aim was to slice the neck but Pieffer pushed his arms away that the blades only slashed the shoulders of Merrick.

"Please, don't kill him," Pieffer begged while gripping his arm. "He is still Merrick."

"Fine," Aries beamed menacingly. "I'll just take the corrupted soul away."

Pieffer hesitated for a moment before releasing the arm of Aries.

"You are my sister!!!" Merrick yelled angrily at Pieffer who looked back at him with the same gravity of rage.

"Prince Sunrei is my brother," she said before stepping away.

Aries began to consume the corrupted soul inside Merrick but to his surprise, he could not pull it out of the body. It felt like the soul had been glued to the vessel.

"You consumed my soul most of your lifetimes, but not in this one," Merrick grinned wickedly back at Aries and his hand had been surrounded by a blue ball of light. "This time, Celestial Knights will win."

The ball of light shot from his hands and zipped towards the abdomen of Aries. It hit with an intense force that shoved him a few feet away from Merrick. Prince Sunrei and Leon had caught him before he tumbled on the ground.

Merrick magically conjured another blue ball of smoke in his right hand and tossed it on the ground. The ball shattered and released a cloud of blue smoke that swallowed Merrick and when it vanished, he disappeared together with it.

"Let's leave him alone for now," Pieffer said as she put an arm around the arm of Prince Sunrei. It was as if she wanted to find consolation.

"Thank you," Prince Sunrei smiled kindly at his sister.

Aries was still confused as to who was inside the body of Prince Sunrei yet he could not help but feel glad that the prince was protective of his sister and Pieffer wanted to save him more than her real brother. There was certainly a reason for it.

"My Princess Pieffer!!!" Pines was hopping joyfully towards the princess. His arms were wide open as if he wanted to embrace her.

Aries knew that the princess was different from the Pieffer he loved, but his body still moved protectively in front of Pieffer and he was the one who had been embraced by Pines.

"You!" Pines jumped away from Aries with annoyance.

"We have to repair the statue," Leon grabbed him by the collar and dragged him away from Aries and Pieffer.

"How dare you do this to me?" Pines pulled away from the grip of Leon. "Show your respect to me, weak lion! I am here to help you!"

Leon glared as he told Pines, "Thanks for the help. But I think we can get rid of Merrick without your help. You've been wandering around my house all this time, without helping us. We did just fine. But if you want to repair the statue all by yourself, I will bow my head to the ground in front of you."

"How dare you..."

"Pines, we need to repair the lion statue as soon as we can," Pieffer had quickly interrupted. "Please, let's focus on our goal."

"I'm sorry, My Princess," Pines crazily changed expression from furious to joyful, and as he tried to walk side by side with Pieffer, Aries and Sunrei quickly pushed him out of the way that he yelled, "Hey!"

But no one was listening to him anymore.

"How do we fix this statue?" Aries curiously asked. "Do we have to call masons?"

"We can fix this with our own energy," Pines looked annoyed as he stood in front of the damaged face of the lion statue. He called forth his dual daggers and pointed its edges at the face of the sculpture. He closed his eyes and the blade of his daggers had been enveloped by silver light while his skin was covered by glowing silver fish scales.

"Leon, wait for us to finish. Conserve your energy as much as you can," Prince Sunrei ordered. "Pieffer, you should also do the same. Watch out for incoming enemies and shield us when they come."

The princess nodded and so did Leon.

"Aries, you should stand near the tail of the statue and do what Pines is doing," Prince Sunrei instructed.

Aries followed and positioned in front of the stone tail. He called Vermillion and pointed its edges at the tail of the lion. He closed his eyes but he could not feel anything extraordinary happening. He opened his eyes and saw that Prince Sunrei and Pines were already healing the face and the body of the enormous sculpture but Aries could not fix the tail.

"Send your energy to the tip of your blades," Pieffer kindly told him. "It will easily come to you."

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"Thanks," Aries closed his eyes once more and tried to send his energy at the tip of his dual blades. As Pieffer had said, it came easily to him. His weapon was like a part of his soul. What his mind wanted, his swords were instantly complying.

Warm and powerful energy was flowing from within him through his dual blades. Aries lost count of time. It only stopped when someone tapped his shoulder.

"You can stop now."

It was Pieffer who told him those words. When he opened his eyes, the lion statue appeared brand new.

"We can start reinstating the barrier," the princess glanced at Leon who nodded and jumped on top of the lion sculpture.

As usual, it took hours before Leon successfully brought back the barrier at the eastern border. But unlike the last time, he was still strong enough to jump down the statue.

"Thank you," he bowed low to Aries, Pieffer, Prince Sunrei, and Pines. "It was easier this time because you filled the statue with your energy. Now my house is safe from the corrupted souls. I owe this to all of you."

"Keep your house safe," Aries said. "Don't let the corrupted souls destroy it again. A strong soul will be difficult to possess. I learned that from Miko and from absorbing corrupted souls. We are the Zodiac Knights. We should always be strong enough to protect everyone within our territory."

"But if you find it hard to fight against our enemies, you can easily call us," Pieffer gave Leon a set of transport bracelets.

"We have to head to the next house," Prince Sunrei said.

"Whose house?" Aries asked.

"The House of Maiden," Prince Sunrei answered. "We need Aries to come with us. Until we are done reinstating the rest of the barriers all over Serestral…"

"I know," Leon smiled. "I will protect the House of Ram while Aries is away. This time, you can count on me."

"I know," Aries felt like smiling but could not. For the first time in his life, he felt shy. "When will we go there?"

"Tomorrow," Pieffer replied. "We have to rest for now. We also have to visit the House of Bull before entering the House of Maiden."

"I'll go with you to the House of Maiden," Pines put his arm around Pieffer's shoulder. "I won against Siorre. I can be with you for an entire week."

"Rest at my manor," Leon offered. "That is one of the few places that remained undamaged by the corrupted souls."

"Is your cook as good as Miko?" Aries asked after clearing his throat.

"Of course," Leon laughed. "Let's go."

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As the lion house leader had said, his house remained undamaged. The people living there were safe and they had provided a delicious dinner for everyone. The house was big enough to give each of them a room to sleep in and it was all clean and cozy. It was as if the House of Lion had never been infiltrated by the corrupted souls.

Aries was lying comfortably on the bed that was placed right next to a window. From there, he could see the starlit sky. His body was tired but he could not doze off. Even if he tried to count the stars in the sky, he could not feel sleepy at all.

He sat up on the bed and passed through the window that felt like a glass door because it was a few inches taller than him. Past the window was a small veranda where he could sit and gaze at the stars more clearly. But it was not the stars who had caught his gaze, but a beautiful lady.

Pieffer was sitting on the veranda next to his. They were only separated by a few feet and of metal railings.

"Can't sleep?"

Aries only nodded and quickly reminded himself that it was Princess Pieffer.

"Thank you for helping my brother," the princess turned to face him and bowed low.

"But he isn't truly your brother, right? Why are you choosing him over your real brother?" Aries curiously asked.

Pieffer smiled bitterly as she replied, "You've seen how he is. He doesn't care about me or Father. He only cares about himself. He wants to kill me even when we were little. He tried it several times until he got into an accident and nearly died," a tear fell on the cheek of Pieffer. "His several attempts to take my life made me hate him. I hoped back then that he will not recover and just die. That's how much I hated him. When he had awakened, I thought about killing him. But I can't," more tears poured from her eyes. "And I'm glad that I didn't because he had changed. I thought at first that it was because his head had been badly injured," she wiped her tears away and smiled at Aries, "It was the same thought I had with you. But as time goes by, I saw a lot of differences. Sunrei not being able to wield the golden sword was the biggest hint I got. I know he is not my birth sibling but he thinks of me as his sister. For the first time in my life, I felt that I have a brother. He is the sibling I am praying for. He had been given to me. That is why I want to protect him."

A terrible thought came to Aries while listening to her story. It was awfully familiar to him.

"When did Sunrei have this accident?"

"It was when he was five years old."

That answered shocked Aries for he never believed in coincidences. The Pieffer he loved had the same story. Her brother got into an accident when he was five years old and when he came out of a coma, he became a different person. Though he never tried to kill Pieffer, he had given her a dagger before abandoning her at the orphanage where they grew up together. Then he had become an assassin. In the end, he got Pieffer killed. And now, he was back to kill his real sister.

The soul inside the body of Merrick was the number one assassin in their organization. And he was a corrupted soul.

Why is this happening to us?

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